As Mike Shinoda, the guitarist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of platinum nu metal group Linkin Park, tried in song to process singer Chester Bennington’s suicide last year, he says he often would end up with lyrics that sound like, in plain language, B.S.

Shinoda says he eventually realized it was simply because he wasn’t being honest with himself.

“If something sounded wrong … I’d just read it in the lyrics and go, ‘That sounds like B.S.’

“So it was almost like the songs were a mirror I held up to myself,” he says.

Those songs ended up forming the start of Shinoda’s first solo disc, “Post Traumatic,” which not only chronicles Shinoda’s feelings in the wake of losing not only one of modern rock’s best voices and a partner in music for 20 years, but also his ability to produce music again without Bennington.

“Post Traumatic” found an audience that could relate to the same struggle. Released June 15, the disc topped both Billboard’s Rock and Alternative charts.

To support the disc, Shinoda now is on his first solo tour, which comes to Stroudsburg’s Sherman Theater Monday night.

In a call from his home in Los Angeles, Shinoda says that shared experience has manifested itself in his concerts.

“The shows have been — they’ve been incredible,” he says. “And there’s an argument that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I don’t know if shows I would do in a year from now would be anything like these shows.

“This is a moment in time, and just being a participant in it — I’m not responsible for what’s happening. I’m just channeling it and just part of it. I’m just trying to direct traffic in this wonderful, communal experience that’s happening each night. And it is spectacular.”

Shinoda has dealt with Bennington’s death in other ways. He has appeared at the end of episodes of the new ABC-TV drama “A Million Little Things” urging people to deal with signs of suicide and depression.

With Bennington, who joined Linkin Park three years after it was founded by Shinoda, Linkin Park was the best-selling band of the 21st century, selling 30 million albums in the United States and more than 70 million worldwide. It 2000 debut album “Hybrid Theory” sold more than 11 million, making it the third-best-selling album of the 2000s.

The group had 19 gold or platinum singles selling more than 30 million combined. “What I’ve Done” in 2007 sold five times platinum, and 2001’s “In the End” and 2003’s “Numb” both sold four times platinum.

Christopher Polk / Getty Images

Linkin Park — Brad Delsen, Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn — perform during the 'Linkin Park And Friends Celebrate Life In Honor Of Chester Bennington' concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 27.

Bennington was found dead in his California home on July 20, 2017, and his death was ruled suicide by hanging.

“After Chester had passed away … anything that reminded me of him and the band, like, felt, like, scary,” Shinoda says. “Like, I would walk into my studio in my home, even in the doorway, like, that’s where we recorded the vocals for some of our big songs off of different albums. And so just even walking in, I would be reminded of that and it’d put me in a weird head space that wasn’t conductive to being creative. It just felt … it felt dark.

“So it took a couple of weeks before I realized if I don’t go in there and sit down … That’s my space. Like, this is my studio, my creative space. I can’t let this other stuff inhibit me from doing the thing I love to do.”

Shinoda says he forced himself to just sit down and just play — “And, you know, those little jams and improvisations turned into songs, and the songs turned into the record.”

In January, Shinoda released an EP, also called “Post Traumatic,” of the first three songs he wrote after Bennington’s death, which chronicled his dealing with it. But more songs started coming together as he healed, Shinoda says.

“One of the things I challenged myself to do as I was making [the album] was to really be aware of the changes — the changes in my perspective as I went along,” he says. “Because in the beginning, everything was very dark and I was coping with a lot … it was very tumultuous. And everything felt like it had been flipped upside down.

“And then after a while, I got some perspective. I started feeling, like, a little more confident. I started feeling like, ‘Well, OK, this isn’t the hand of cards I would have wanted, but this is the one I’ve been dealt, so what can I do with it? And I devoted some of the album to looking backward. And then at a certain point toward the middle of the album, it started looking forward.”

The album is laid out essentially chronologically, he says. “You’ll hear in ‘Post Traumatic’ the progression from the early days of that year into the later days, where there is more, like I said, hope. And kind of the whole time using the music as a device to help process things, but also, eventually, like, enjoying making the stuff again.”

Shonoda, 41, says that long before Bennington’s death, he intended to release a solo album.

In 2005, Shinoda released an album with a side project, Fort Major, called “The Rising Tide” that explored the hip-hop side of his music. It peaked just outside the Top 50 on the Billboard chart, and produced a single, ‘Where’s You Go,” that hit No. 2 on the Pop Songs chart and was certified platinum and another, “Remember My Name,” that sold four times platinum.

Shinoda released another song, “Welcome,” under the Fort Major name in 2015.

“I had a few tracks that I was intending to eventually put out, but I always treated those tracks as something I would do in between Linkin Park things,” he says. Linkin Park released its last album, “One More Light,” in May 2017, and “my thought at the time was that I would … love, after we really support the launch of the record and the band’s touring is kind of in a routine, a rhythm, I would be able to find slots of weeks here or there where I can kind of finish up some of these Fort Minor songs and maybe do a couple Fort Minor shows.”

Shinoda says he never had expectations about the solo disc’s success.

“To me, in terms of the reception, I don’t think I ever expected it to be a commercial success,” he says. “I think this record is a statement and a diary, and in terms of that viewpoint, it’s done everything I hoped it would do and more.”

Since Bennington’s death, Linkin Park played just one live show — a tribute to the singer a year ago, and released a live disc of its final tour with Bennington, “One More Light Live,” last December.

Shinoda did not address the future of Linkin Park in the interview, but has said he intends to continue the band.

In a statement released by his publicist, he said: “I’m unable to say what will happen with the band. There’s really just no answer, and it’s funny because if I even say anything about the band’s future, that becomes the headline, which is stupid because the answer is there is no answer.”

Shinoda says he pays tribute to Linkin Park in his shows.

He says he’s had shows where the crowd has requested songs, and “I was, like, ‘You know what we’ll do? Like, we’ll just play all of them!’ And it was amazing — they freaked out!

“I’d say the last thing I want to do is bring a sad show to people. Even to people who are coming to the show still feeling very emotional and raw from the events of last year. I know that I’m in a confident place where, if they want to take it to something that’s more of a kind of a tribute kind of moment, we go there. If they want to jump up and down and sing and scream and have a great time, we go there, too. And you can have all of those things.

“Where the album leaves off is where the tour picks up. So to see the next step in this evolution and this story, it’s all about the show.

“And I don’t have any problem telling people who have missed the show so far — ‘Oh, I have an excuse; I couldn’t come, whatever …’ or ‘It’s not a Linkin Park show so I wasn’t interested’ or ‘Man, I really wanted to come, but I was scared because what happened to Chester was so sad and I don’t want to go and have a sad show.’